A couple of students in the last REO class I taught asked for the slides and stats that I had shared. Here goes…

To begin with, these come from the Tucson MLS with the following search parameters:

Property Type: Residential
Property Subtypes: Single Family Res., Condo, Townhouse
Areas: Central, East, Northwest, Extended West, South, Extended Southwest, Extended South, West, Southeast, Extended Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, North, Extended Northeast

Status was Sold for all the graphs and the dates were for each month shown. REO’s were considered those where the Agent Remarks contain any of the following: reo, bank owned, bank-owned, lender owned, lender-owned, foreclosure. That’s not perfect, but the errors probably cancel each other on missing some and including others that don’t belong. In any case, our primary purpose is to watch the trend of REOs so this methodology is probably sound. Finally, February’s data is only the first 8 days so take that for what it is.

The first question is “Are REOs a big part of the market now?” Here’s the Units Sold chart for the last 14 months which is most dramatic I think in illustrating the increasing share of the market that REOs represent.

The second question is “Are REOs cheaper and do they sell quicker?” The Days on Market and Median Square Foot Price charts for the last 14 months seem to indicate they sell faster and cheaper.

This final bit of data illustrates very clearly, when considered with the previous charts, that while REO listings are a smaller part of our current inventory, they are priced to sell and sell quicker, and that they are less likely to be taken off the market or allowed to expire.

Let me know what you think!